Ammon News - by Taylor Luck/ Jordan Times

AMMAN — The capital’s streets witnessed no rallies this Friday for the first time in over two months as activists cancelled previously planned protests in Amman.

Instead, Islamists and leftists rallied across southern Jordan on Friday to protest against “rising prices”, urging the government to resign over recent fiscal austerity measures.

Dozens of activists took to the streets in the southern towns of Mazar and Tafileh on Friday to protest against a government plan to raise electricity rates by an average of 15 per cent next month.

In a rally in Mazar in Karak Governorate, 140km south of Amman, participants burned electricity bills chanting, “We will not pay the bill for your corruption,” eyewitnesses said.

Last week, the government announced that it plans to raise electricity rates by an average of 15 per cent across all sectors following the holy month of Ramadan, which began last Wednesday.

Officials say the move aims to narrow the state-run National Electric Power Company’s (NEPCO) burgeoning budget deficit — currently forecast to reach JD3.47 billion by the end of the year and over JD7.5 billion in 2017. Despite rising oil costs, NEPCO continues to sell electricity to consumers at an average rate of 84 fils per kilowatt-hour (kw/h) — half the firm’s 168 fils per kw/h generation costs.

Meanwhile, some 200 protesters gathered in an Islamist rally in the southern city of Karak to call for the resignation of the government for what they described as “failed economic policies” and “lack of democratic reforms”.